WEC 51 preview: Pay-per-view worthy card broadcast free to fans

According to WEC president Reed Harris, Thursday’s stacked “WEC 51: Aldo vs. Gamburyan” card was almost a pay-per-view event.

“This card is so deep that we had a discussion,” Harris told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) recently.

But because the Zuffa-owned promotion owes a certain number of events per year to its cable broadcast partner Versus, and possibly because its biggest bona fide star, Urijah Faber, can’t participate due to injury, MMA fans get a pretty rich card for free.

In the event’s main draws, the seemingly unbeatable featherweight champion Jose Aldo attempts to counter the heavy hands and judo skills of Manny Gamburyan, while former lightweight champion Jamie Varner and Donald Cerrone hope to settle the score after an inconclusive first meeting in the evening’s co-main event.

WEC 51 takes place Thursday at the 1STBANK Center in Broomfield, Colo., and airs live on Versus.

Since his WEC debut in June 2008, Aldo (17-1 MMA, 7-0 WEC) has buzzsawed through the featherweight division with killer instinct and a devastating Muay Thai attack. He stopped his first six WEC opponents with strikes, including Mike Brown, whom he TKO’d to win the 145-pound title at WEC 44.

He most recently met Faber on pay-per-view at WEC 48 and battered the former champion with leg kicks en route to a unanimous decision victory (Faber’s legs took on a deep shade of purple after the fight, as he documented on his official Twitter account).

Brown and Faber were considered the best of the best within the promotion, and with the dominant performance, there was intense speculation that Aldo would move up to the lightweight class intensified.

But then former lightweight and UFC veteran Gamburyan (11-4 MMA, 3-0 WEC) spoke up and put together three consecutive wins as a featherweight to make a bid for Aldo’s crown; he bested John Franchi and Leonard Garcia before turning heads with a knockout victory over the former champion Brown in his most recent showing.

The wins reversed a two-fight slide that forced Gamburyan to migrate from the UFC’s lightweight division to the WEC’s featherweight class.

Gamburyan, a student of famed grappling and MMA trainer Gokor Chivichyan, was a finalist on “The Ultimate Fighter 5″ before a shoulder injury gave Nate Diaz the reality show crown.

The Armenian-American fighter said he’s prepared himself to deal with the pressure Aldo brings in the standup game. And with his judo and wrestling background, it’s a sure thing that he’ll try to take the fight to the ground, where the champion has yet to be truly tested.

“Every fighter has holes in his game,” Gamburyan said of his task in taking Aldo’s belt. “He has some holes in his game.”

Aldo is banking on the idea that Gamburyan sees the ground game – particularly wrestling – as one of his weak points.

“I feel Manny’s wrestling, and his judo, and also his heavy hands are what I’m going to be watching out for the whole fight,” Aldo told MMAjunkie.com. “Me and my trainers have been watching all of Manny’s fights to create a strategy on top of that judo.

“He’s going to come in aggressive, and I’m going to come in aggressive. It’s going to be a great fight to watch for the fans.”

In WEC 51’s co-main event, former WEC lightweight champion Jamie Varner (16-3-1 MMA, 4-1-1 WEC) and three-time contender Donald Cerrone (11-3 MMA, 4-3 WEC) meet in a rematch of a January 2009 fight that left a question mark in their professional careers. Then-champion Varner caught an illegal knee from Cerrone in WEC 38’s main event and was rendered unable to continue, though he was awarded a victory when judges’ scorecards revealed him to be ahead after four-plus rounds in the books.

Since then, they’ve often jawed at each other over the result, though it was not until both hit career roadblocks that the rematch became a reality.

Varner lost his lightweight belt in January to current champion Ben Henderson, and Cerrone failed to pick it up when Henderson submitted him in April in his second crack at the belt.

Of course, both claim they’ve changed since the first meeting and will answer the questions brought by the first bout, in which Varner took a scoring lead by playing a hit-and-run striking attack punctuated by takedowns.

“Donald’s a tough dude, man,” Varner said. “He’s like ‘The Terminator.’ You can hit him, you can kick him, (and) you can take him down but he still keeps coming.

“I see this is as a fight where if he makes a mistake, hopefully I can catch him. But if not, it’s going to be a three-round war, and the wrestling and my speed will be the difference in this fight, just like it was in the last fight.”

Cerrone says he’s gotten a lot better as a fighter, but not much will change in terms of approach. He’ll still walk Varner down and engage.

“I’m just a slow starter,” he said. “I think going out there and not becoming a slow starter might put me in jeopardy. That’s just how I fight.”

As to the verbal battle that’s brewed for more than a year, and the controversial comments that landed Cerrone in hot water prior to Thursday’s fight, the Arizona native Varner said he’s more concerned with a victory than showing up a nemesis.

“I wish no ill will upon Donald,” he said. “I want him to have a successful career. I want him to accomplish all of his goals. I don’t need that win on my conscience. I want to win, I want everything to go smooth, and I want to fight in my hometown.”

In other main card action, former bantamweight champion Miguel Torres (37-3 MMA, 5-2 WEC) takes on veteran Charlie Valencia (12-5 MMA, 5-3 WEC) in Torres’ first bout since Faber protégé Joseph Benavidez put a halt to his road back to the belt with a submission loss. Valencia, meanwhile, returns after an injury forced him to withdraw from a bout with former champion Eddie Wineland in June’s WEC 49. He is on a three-fight win streak and most recently defeated Japanese standout Akitoshi Tamura by decision at WEC 46.

In preliminary action, Chinese fighter Tiequan Zhang makes his American debut against short-notice replacement Pablo Garza and former champion Brown begins his road to redemption against Cole Province.

The complete WEC 51 lineup includes:

MAIN CARD

Champ Jose Aldo vs. Manny Gamburyan (for featherweight title)

Donald Cerrone vs. Jamie Varner

Miguel Torres vs. Charlie Valencia

Chan Sung Jung vs. George Roop

Leonard Garcia vs. Mark Hominick

PRELIMINARY CARD

Pablo Garza vs. Tiequan Zhang

Mike Brown vs. Cole Province

Chris Horodecki vs. Ed Ratcliff

Diego Nunes vs. Tyler Toner

Antonio Banuelos vs. Chad George

Demetrious Johnson vs. Nick Pace

For the latest on WEC 51, stay tuned to the MMA Rumors section of MMAjunkie.com.

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